Tuesday Open Thread

Teach us
To continue the Creation
To help the seeds
To multiply,
Giving food
For the people
And for the beasts.

Teach us
To further the joy
You never tire of offering
When weary travelers find you,
A signpost to their home.

Teach us
To make the horizon
Become a beautiful image
Of Creation's grandeur.

Teach us
To accept
The meditation of those
Who wish to unite us
To our fellows,
As we accept the gift
Of the water that binds
Land to land,
No matter how great the distances!

What do you suffer
In the dust of the deserts?
How do you look upon
Those of us who,
Though capable of transforming
The waste to lushness,
Prefer to be creators
Of barrenness?

And how do you rejoice
In the rain
That brings forth your fruits?
nd what pain do you feel
At the storms
That drown you with floods,
Destroying plantations,
Crushing houses and lives
Of animals, of plants, of people?

How great is the lesson
You give us,
O Earth,
More than sister:
Our Mother Earth!

All our lives
We walk carelessly across you,
And when life leaves us,
With no shadow of resentment,
You open up to us
Your maternal bosom
To keep our flesh,
Our ashes,
For the joy
Of the resurrection.

-- Dom Helder Camara's poem on reverencing the earth as our teacher.

the Super Bowl with Melissa Jacobs from The Football Girl and host of The Football Girl Podcast. The Philadelphia Eagles sure didn’t consider social justice a distraction en route to the Super Bowl. What’s next for both the Eagles and the New England Patriots?

"Choice Words" examines how the Eagles used their platform to speak out for others and still came out on top – yes, you can do both.

The City of Brotherly Love is where you’ll find this week's "Just Stand Up" award

1945 - A massive air raid with hundreds of British bombers loaded with incendiaries and high-explosive bombs drop 1,478 tons of high-explosive bombs and 1,182 tons of incendiaries completely destroying the city of Dresden, in eastern Germany leaving between 35,000 and 135,000 civilian casualties.

1958 - A four-passenger Thunderbird was made by the Ford Company, and it was introduced on this day in 1958 This new version was called the "Square Bird", and was considered to be a model of car that turned the Thunderbird from a sports car into a luxury car. This version of the Thunderbird is often even today referred to as the T-Bird. It is known as the epitome of 1950s culture, and has appeared in movies such as Grease and in music videos (i.e. Beach Boys "I Get Around").

1960 - Over the course of the Nashville sit-in campaign, sit-ins were staged at numerous stores in the central business district. Sit-in participants, who consisted mainly of black college students, were often verbally or physically attacked by white onlookers. Despite their refusal to retaliate, over 150 students were eventually arrested for refusing to vacate store lunch counters when ordered to do so by police. At trial, the students were represented by a group of 13 lawyers, headed by Z. Alexander Looby. On April 19, Looby's home was bombed, although he escaped uninjured. Later that day, nearly 4000 people marched to City Hall to confront Mayor Ben West about the escalating violence. When asked if he believed the lunch counters in Nashville should be desegregated, West agreed that they should. After subsequent negotiations between the store owners and protest leaders, an agreement was reached during the first week of May. On May 10, six downtown stores began serving black customers at their lunch counters for the first time.

1967 - The Beatles release the double A-sided single in the United Kingdom with Penny Lane ( Paul McCartney ) ** written about Penny Lane where Lennon and McCartney would meet to go into Liverpool *** on one side and

( John Lennon ) *** named after a Salvation Army house where Lennon would play as a kid *** on the other side.

1991 - This was the day that the original manuscript of Huckleberry Finn by Mark was recovered. It was a handwritten script of the first half of the original draft of this book, which included Twains own handwritten corrections. This manuscript had been missing for over a hundred years. It was found by a 62-year old librarian from Los Angeles, who finally sorted through old papers sent to her from upstate New York. Mark Twain had sent the second half of the manuscript to this librarian's grandfather, James Gluck. Gluck had solicited this manuscript in Buffalo, New York where Mark Twain had lived at one time. Mark Twain could not find the first half of his manuscript, even while he was alive. However, he did find it and sent it to Gluck. Court proceedings had taken place to decide who owned the rights to the lost Huckleberry Finn manuscript (the first half). The sisters, the library, and the Mark Twain Papers Projects in Berkeley, California all fought for rights of this book. After a fairly lengthy battle, the three different groups mentioned above came to a consensus, and made a deal. The library would be awarded the rights to the physical papers, and all three parties would share in publication rights. Then, in 1995, Random House won the rights to publish the book. They were said to have paid a high price for these rights, however, and the amount they were said to have paid was not disclosed to the public.

1991 - Local reports from Baghdad, Iraq say two laser-guided precision bombs from American bombers hit an air-raid shelter in the middle class district of Amiriya, five miles from the centre of the Iraqi capital. So far 235 bodies have been recovered, 12 hours after the attacks.

2000 - On the day after Charles M. Schultz died the comic strip "Peanuts" appeared in newspapers for the last time. The characters of "Peanuts" included Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, Woodstock, and others.

That midnight train is a long and a slow one
Your seat is reserved, the brakeman is tired
Timetable's set with exceptions for no one
No luggage allowed, no ticket required

It will be there right on time at the station
Even if midnight must come at high noon
You will not know that train's destination
And you'll not leave late nor one minute too soon

You may sit beside fear and go worse than lonely
Or travel with trust and love and faith restored
These choices you have and these choices only
When that train rolls in and you step on board

Now that whistle blows, yes, it's already whinin'
If you listen close, you can hear it soft and clear
And that headlight burns, yes, it's already shinin'
And you might as well choose right now
It's love or fear, it's love or fear

Well, ain't got no momma now
Yeah, ain't got no momma now
She told me late last night
You don't need no momma no how

Sit here wonderin' would a matchbox hold my clothes
Yeah, matchbox hold my clothes
I ain't got so many matches
But Lord I got so doggone far to go

I got a great long snake crawlin' around my room
Yeah, crawlin' around my room
Handsome pretty momma better come down here
Take that long snake soon

That must been a bedbug, I know a chinch can't bit that hard
Yeah, chinch can't bit that hard
Asked my woman for fifty cents
She said, "Jimmie, I ain't got a dime in the yard"

Well, well ain't got no momma now
Yeah, ain't got no momma now
She told me late last night
You don't need no momma no how

Well, I headed back to the borderland
When the home-guard went insane
No use trying to work with people
Who can't tell fire from rain

The judge had tried to hitch a ride
But I only took him half way
Friends are friends but in the borderland
You can't be careful of what you say

The sheriff sent me every warning he could
But I knew more than he
My home is both sides of the borderland
So he knows where I'll be

The businessman in a sleek sedan
Thought he could beat me here
But roads fade out before you reach the line
And the signposts disappear

So good to be home in the borderland
Where things are not what they seem
So good to be home in the borderland
Between the dawn and the dream

The brown-eyed girl from the battleground
Had just met me half-way
The border-guard had let her pass
But said you could not stay

She gazed upon the mountain above
And she reached out her hand
The she let go with all her might
And loved the borderland

So good to be home in the borderland
Where things are not what they seem
So good to be home in the borderland
Between the dawn and the dream

Howlin' at midnight, winter creepin' in
Feel like I've gone and lost my best friend
My best friend, lost my best friend
This car's headed down the wrong track again

I ain't got nobody, I'm nobody's girl
Gonna get in my mercury and drive around the world
Around the world, all around the world
When I reach that mountain top I'll stand with flags unfurled

She's up in new york city tryin' to make it big
Wrote me a letter yesterday sayin' I ain't got no gigs
Ain't got no gigs, I ain't got no gigs
If you want to send me somethin', make it a two dollar rig

She's up in new york city tryin' to be a star
Told me you're wastin' your time where you are
Where you are, where you are
Gotta get yourself out of all those texas bars

Howlin' at midnight, winter creepin' in
Feel like I've gone and lost my best friend
My best friend, lost my best friend
This car's headed down the wrong track again
This car's headed down the wrong track again

Down by the banks of the Colorado
My true love and I, one night did lie.
And we laughed and played and made funD
of the entire world spinnin' round the sun
down by the banks of the Colorado.

Up from the banks of the Colorado,
night watchmen stood guard, round the wagon yard
and I took a pillar as a sign
that the salt of the earth would soon be mine
up from the banks of the Colorado.

There is another Colorado
wise men have told me, wise women, too.
that I have found sweet Eldorado
down by the banks of one sweet Colorado.

Down by the banks of Colorado
the years flowed softly before my eyes.
And a circus joined me in my quest
and stood with me throughout my test
down by the banks of the Colorado

If you were a bluebird you'd be a sad one
I'd give you a true word
But you've already had one
If you were a bluebird,
you'd be crying
You'd be flying home
If you were a raindrop,
You'd shine like a rainbow
And if you were a train stop,
The conductor would sing low
If you were a raindrop,
You'd be falling
You'd be calling home
If you were a hotel
Honey, you'd be a grand one
But, if you hit a slow spell,
Do you think you could stand one
If you were a hotel,
Well I'd lean on your doorbell
I'd call you my home
If I was a highway,
I'd stretch alongside you
I'd help you pass by ways
That had dissatisfied you
If I was a highway,
Well I'd be stretchin'
I'd be fetchin' you home

With a backpack full of yesterdays
On a freeway full of smoke and haze
Where the power lines and fault lines double cross
I left our yellow porch light on
No one will notice no one’s home
And no one else will notice what was lost

I lost my home when the deal went bust
To the so-called security and trust
I planned my life the way they said I should
I sent my wife and kids ahead
I’m right behind you, so I said
I’ll be there when I get there if that’s good

Now I’m leaving California for the dust bowl
They took it all, there’s nowhere else to go
The pastures of plenty are burning by the sea
And I’m just a homeland refugee

There’s a plastic sack by a barbwire fence
A burned out beer truck full of dents
A dried up stock pond by an old canal
Between the towns the desert sands
Filling up with empty cans
Container trains, casinos and canals

My Grandpa used to tell about
The way the bankers drove them out
In the wind and the dust in the crash of ‘29
They crossed the desert headed west
They swore that it was for the best
They reassured the ones they left behind

There’s some refugees from Mexico
Behind an abandoned Texaco
We nod and smile, it’s clear we’re all the same
For everything this world is worth
We’re all just migrants on this earth
Returning to the dust from where we came

...another rainy start to the day here. However, I'm not complaining we're still in a drought here in NE Alabama...

A second week of wet weather began lifting parts of the Southeast out of drought, though significant precipitation deficits lingered over the past 2 to 6 months. Despite the recent wetness, 90-day precipitation remained a meager 50 percent of normal (or less) in the core D1 and D2 areas, with deficits topping 8 inches in the southern Appalachians and along the northeastern Gulf Coast.

However, it has been mild the last week or two. With the rain and warm temps, the grass is greening and daffodils are growing soon to bloom.

hope you all have a good day....wet or dry.

up

12 users have voted.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
the book on dryland farming techniques in your OT a while back? If so, could you dig up the reference again, I can't find my download and can't think of a good search to retrieve it. I'd really appreciate it.

...another rainy start to the day here. However, I'm not complaining we're still in a drought here in NE Alabama...

A second week of wet weather began lifting parts of the Southeast out of drought, though significant precipitation deficits lingered over the past 2 to 6 months. Despite the recent wetness, 90-day precipitation remained a meager 50 percent of normal (or less) in the core D1 and D2 areas, with deficits topping 8 inches in the southern Appalachians and along the northeastern Gulf Coast.

However, it has been mild the last week or two. With the rain and warm temps, the grass is greening and daffodils are growing soon to bloom.

hope you all have a good day....wet or dry.

up

5 users have voted.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

#2
the book on dryland farming techniques in your OT a while back? If so, could you dig up the reference again, I can't find my download and can't think of a good search to retrieve it. I'd really appreciate it.

up

1 user has voted.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

time to fire up the garden again, which constitutes a major distraction, but also a tiny bit of revolution. People's victory gardens, as I see them, decrease our dependency on the machine and make us as a population just a tiny bit less desperate. That, in turn, slightly decreases the leverage that the oligarchs can employ to control, manipulate and direct us.

My theory is that the oligarchs rely upon and to a degree require a permanent underclass, always hungry and needy for all things, and each and every act of resilience therefore is also an act of resistance and rebellion and even more so when it can be incorporated into a local culture of sharing.

up

8 users have voted.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --